People usually go to the shop two or three times a week to buy food. Less frequently people go shopping to buy clothes, usually it is women and teenagers.

And everywhere you go, you'll find adverts. There are many varieties of adverts: on TV, on radio, in magazines, on streets and so on.

You can see your favorite sportsman or actor advertising cars, drinks, sports shops. Superstars make big money from advertising. For example, some football and basketball players make millions of dollars from advertising sport clothes or drinks.

What are the functions of advertisements? The first function is to inform. A big part of the information people have about houses, cars, building materials, electronic equipment, cosmetics, drinks and food comes from the advertisements they read. Advertisements introduce them to new products or remind them of the existing ones.

The second function is to sell. The products are shown from the best point of view and the potential buyer, on having entered the store, unconsciously chooses the advertised products. One buys this washing powder or this chewing gum because the colorful TV commercials convince him of the best qualities of the product. Even cigarettes or alcohol are associated with the good values of human life such as joy, freedom, love and happiness, and just those associations make a person choose the advertised products.

All those small ads in the press such as "employment", "education" and "for sale and wanted" columns, help ordinary people to find a better job or a better employee, to sell or to buy their second-hand things and to find services, or to learn about educational facilities, social events such as concerts, theatre plays, football matches, and to announce births, marriages and deaths.